The daughters of a former chief of KwaXimba and ANC veteran Zibuse Mlaba said their healing journey has started after the murderer of their father was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment by the Camperdown Regional Court on Thursday morning.
Mlaba was gunned down in October 2021 at Wareing's Shopping Centre, outside his office. Fortune Dlamini pleaded guilty to coordinating Mlaba’s murder and implicated a Mlaba family member.
Dlamini said the Mlaba family member who is soon to make his first appearance in court gave him R130 000 for the murder.
The victim's youngest daughter, Mandisa Mlaba said the healing process had begun.
“Our healing starts today, knowing that he has stood in front of the court and pleaded guilty and has been sentenced. That part is done,” she said.
Mandisa said for the first time she would sleep peacefully.
“Now we are moving on to the next person (the implicated family member) to hear what was the motive because this one (Dlamini) was sent,” she said.
She said what Dlamini did means a lot to them as a family. “We can breathe a bit and now start the journey of understanding what happened,” she added.
Mandisa said it saddened her that a family member is the one behind this because her father who was a KZN MPL loved his whole family. She said Mlaba lived for his family.
“It's painful that our blood did this to us,” she said.
The eldest daughter Thembeka Nsimbi hailed the justice system for a good job. She said she didn’t want to believe that one of their own did this to her father.
“I wanted to close my ears and not hear anything. I thought they were lying to me. In my heart I hoped it's not true but when you get to court that is when you will hear the truth,” she said.
Nsimbi said she heard Dlamini’s confession and that this was about the selling of land. She said the family member implicated in this matter was a cousin to their father.
“I think my dad knew that he was going to be killed. People asked him to run away but he refused. He said he would die for the land of his forefathers. And he said the person who’d kill him would be arrested,” she said.
Additionally, she said her father believed in justice being served when the whole world did not. Some of the Mlaba family members including the daughters were in court to listen to Dlamini's plea. While the plea was read out some cried.